[1] Park Benjamin, _The Intellectual Rise in Electricity_, p. 512.
[2] Ibid. p. 519.
LEYS, HENDRIK, BARON (1815-1869), Belgian painter, was born at Antwerp
on the 18th of February 1815. He studied under Wappers at the Antwerp
Academy. In 1833 he painted "Combat d'un grenadier et d'un cosaque," and
in the following year "Combat de Bourguignons et Flamands." In 1835 he
went to Paris where he was influenced by the Romantic movement. Examples
of this period of his painting are "Massacre des échevins de Louvain,"
"Mariage flamand," "Le Roi des arbalétriers" and other works. Leys was
an imitative painter in whose works may rapidly be detected the schools
which he had been studying before he painted them. Thus after his visit
to Holland in 1839 he reproduced many of the characteristics of the
Dutch genre painters in such works as "Franz Floris se rendant à une
fête" (1845) and "Service divin en Hollande" (1850). So too the methods
of Quentin Matsys impressed themselves upon him after he had travelled
in Germany in 1852. In 1862 Leys was created a baron. At the time of his
death, which occurred in August 1869, he was engaged in decorating with
fresco the large hall of the Antwerp Hôtel de Ville.
LEYTON, an urban district forming one of the north-eastern suburbs of
London, England, in the Walthamstow (S.W.) parliamentary division of
Essex. Pop. (1891) 63,106; (1901) 98,912. It lies on the east (left)
bank of the Lea, along the flat open valley of which runs the boundary
between Essex and the county of London. The church of St Mary, mainly a
brick reconstruction, contains several interesting memorials; including
one to William Bowyer the printer (d. 1737), erected by his son and
namesake, more famous in the same trade. Here is also buried John Strype
the historian and biographer (d. 1737), who held the position of curate
and lecturer at this church. Leyton is in the main a residential as
distinct from a manufacturing locality. Its name is properly Low Leyton,
and the parish includes the district of Leytonstone to the east. Roman
remains have been discovered here, but no identification with a Roman
station by name has been made with certainty. The ground of the Essex
County Cricket Club is at Leyton.
LHASA (LHASSA, LASSA, "God's ground"), the capital of Tibet. It lies in
29° 39´ N., 91° 5´ E., 11,830 ft. above sea-level. Owing to the
inaccessibility of Tibet and the political and religious exclusiveness
of the lamas, Lhasa was long closed to European travellers, all of whom
during the latter half of the 19th century were stopped in their
attempts to reach it. It was popularly known as the "Forbidden City."
But its chief features were known by the accounts of the earlier Romish
missionaries who visited it and by the investigations, in modern times,
of native Indian secret explorers, and others, and the British armed
mission of 1904 (see TIBET).
_Site and General Aspect._--The city stands in a tolerably level plain,
which is surrounded on all sides by hills. Along its southern side,
about ½ m. south of Lhasa, runs a considerable river called the Kyichu
(Ki-chu) or Kyi, flowing here from E.N.E., and joining the great Tsangpo
(or upper course of the Brahmaputra) some 38 m. to the south-west. The
hills round the city are barren. The plain, however, is fertile, though
in parts marshy. There are gardens scattered over it round the city, and
these are planted with fine trees. The city is screened from view from
the west by a rocky ridge, lofty and narrow, with summits at the north
and south, the one flanked and crowned by the majestic buildings of
Potala, the chief residence of the Dalai lama, the other by the temple
of medicine. Groves, gardens and open ground intervene between this
ridge and the city itself for a distance of about 1 m. A gate through
the centre of the ridge gives access from the west; the road thence to
the north part of the city throws off a branch to the Yutok sampa or
turquoise-tiled covered bridge, one of the noted features of Lhasa,
which crosses a former channel of the Kyi, and carries the road to the
centre of the town.
The city is nearly circular in form, and less than 1 m. in diameter. It
was walled in the latter part of the 17th century, but the walls were
destroyed during the Chinese occupation in 1722. The chief streets are
fairly straight, but generally of no great width. There is no paving or
metal, nor any drainage system, so that the streets are dirty and in
parts often flooded. The inferior quarters are unspeakably filthy, and
are rife with evil smells and large mangy dogs and pigs. Many of the
houses are of clay and sun-dried brick, but those of the richer people
are of stone and brick. All are frequently white-washed, the doors and
windows being framed in bands of red and yellow. In the suburbs there
are houses entirely built of the horns of sheep and oxen set in clay
mortar. This construction is in some cases very roughly carried out, but
in others it is solid and highly picturesque. Some of the inferior huts
of this type are inhabited by the Ragyaba or scavengers, whose chief
occupation is that of disposing of corpses according to the practice of
cutting and exposing them to the dogs and birds of prey. The houses
generally are of two or three storeys. Externally the lower part
generally presents dead walls (the ground floor being occupied by
stables and similar apartments); above these rise tiers of large windows
with or without projecting balconies, and over all flat broad-eaved
roofs at varying levels. In the better houses there are often spacious
and well-finished apartments, and the principal halls, the verandahs and
terraces are often highly ornamented in brilliant colours. In every
house there is a kind of chapel or shrine, carved and gilt, on which are
set images and sacred books.
The Jokhang.
_Temples and Monasteries._--In the centre of the city is an open
square which forms the chief market-place. Here is the great temple of
the "Jo" or Lord Buddha, called the Jokhang,[1] regarded as the centre
of all Tibet, from which all the main roads are considered to radiate.
This is the great metropolitan sanctuary and church-centre of Tibet,
the St Peter's or Lateran of Lamaism. It is believed to have been
founded by the Tibetan Constantine, Srong-tsan-gampo, in 652, as the
shrine of one of those two very sacred Buddhist images which were
associated with his conversion and with the foundation of the
civilized monarchy in Tibet. The exterior of the building is not
impressive; it rises little above the level of other buildings which
closely surround it, and the effect of its characteristic gilt roof,
though conspicuous and striking from afar, is lost close at hand.
The main building of the Jokhang is three storeys high. The entrance
consists of a portico supported on timber columns, carved and gilt,
while the walls are engraved with Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan
characters, and a great prayer-wheel stands on one side. Massive
folding doors, ornamented with scrollwork in iron, lead to an
antehall, and from this a second gate opens into a courtyard
surrounded by a verandah with many pillars and chapels, and frescoes
on its walls. On the left is the throne of the grand lama, laid with
cushions, together with the seats of other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
variously elevated according to the rank of their occupants. An inner
door with enclosed vestibule gives access to the quadrangular choir or
chancel, as it may be called, though its centre is open to the sky. On
either side of it are three chapels, and at the extremity is the
rectangular "holy of holies," flanked by two gilded images of the
coming Buddha, and screened by lattice-work. In it is the shrine on
which sits the great image of Sakya, set about with small figures,
lamps and a variety of offerings, and richly jewelled, though the
workmanship of the whole is crude. In the second and third storeys of
the temple are shrines and representations of a number of gods and
goddesses. The temple contains a vast accumulation of images, gold and
silver vessels, lamps, reliquaries and precious bric-à-brac of every
kind. The daily offices are attended by crowds of worshippers, and a
sacred way which leads round the main building is constantly traversed
by devotees who perform the circuit as a work of merit, always in a
particular direction. The temple was found by the members of the
British mission who visited it to be exceedingly dirty, and the
atmosphere was foul with the fumes of butter-lamps.
Besides the convent-cells, halls of study and magazines of precious
lumber, buildings grouped about the Jokhang are occupied by the civil
administration, e.g. as treasuries, customs office, courts of justice,
&c., and there are also private apartments for the grand lama and
other high functionaries. No woman is permitted to pass the night
within the precinct.
In front of the main entrance to the Jokhang, in the shadow of a
sacred willow tree, stands a famous monument, the Doring monolith,
which bears the inscribed record of a treaty of peace concluded in 822
(or, according to another view, in 783) between the king of Tibet and
the emperor of China. Before this monument the apostate from Lamaism,
Langdharma, brother and successor of the last-named king, is said to
have been standing when a fanatic recluse, who had been stirred by a
vision to avenge his persecuted faith, assassinated him.
Potala.
The famous Potala hill, covered by the palace of the Dalai lama, forms
a majestic mountain of building; with its vast inward-sloping walls
broken only in the upper parts by straight rows of many windows, and
its flat roofs at various levels, it is not unlike a fortress in
appearance. At the south base of the rock is a large space enclosed by
walls and gates, with great porticoes on the inner side. This swarms
with lamas and with beggars. A series of tolerably easy staircases,
broken by intervals of gentle ascent, leads to the summit of the rock.
The whole width of this is occupied by the palace. The central part of
this group of buildings (for the component parts of Potala are of
different dates) rises in a vast quadrangular mass above its
satellites to a great height, terminating in gilt canopies similar to
those on the Jokhang. Here on the lofty terrace is the grand lama's
promenade, and from this great height he looks down upon the crowds of
his votaries far below. This central member of Potala is called the
red palace from its crimson colour, which distinguishes it from the
rest. It contains the principal halls and chapels and shrines of past
Dalai lamas. There is in these much rich decorative painting, with
jewelled work, carving and other ornament, but the interior of Potala
as a whole cannot compare in magnificence with the exterior. Among the
numerous other buildings of note on or near Potala hill, one is
distinguished by the Chinese as one of the principal beauties of
Lhasa. This is a temple not far from the base of the hill, in the
middle of a lake which is surrounded by trees and shrubberies. This
temple, called Lu-kang, is circular in form, with a _loggia_ or
portico running all round and adorned with paintings. Its name, "the
serpent house," comes from the tradition of a serpent or dragon, which
dwelt here and must be propitiated lest it should cause the waters to
rise and flood Lhasa.
Another great and famous temple is Ramo-ché, at the north side of the
city. This is also regarded as a foundation of Srong-tsan-gampo, and
is said to contain the body of his Chinese wife and the second of the
primeval palladia, the image that she brought with her to the
Snow-land; whence it is known as the "small Jokhang." This temple is
noted for the practice of magical arts. Its buildings are in a
neglected condition.
Another monastery within the city is that of Moru, also on the north
side, remarkable for its external order and cleanliness. Though famous
as a school of orthodox magic, it is noted also for the printing-house
in the convent garden. This convent was the temporary residence of the
regent during the visit of the British mission in 1904. Other
monasteries in or near the city are the Tsamo Ling or Chomoling at the
north-west corner; the Tangyä Ling or Tengyeling at the west of the
city; the Kundä Ling or Kundeling about 1 m. west of the city, at the
foot of a low isolated hill called Chapochi. Three miles south, beyond
the river, is the Tsemchog Ling or Tsecholing. These four convents are
known as "The Four Ling." From their inmates the Dalai lama's regent,
during his minority, was formerly chosen. The temple of medicine, as
already stated, crowns the summit (Chagpa) at the end of the ridge
west of the city, opposite to that on which stands the Potala. It is
natural that in a country possessing a religious system like that of
Tibet the medical profession should form a branch of the priesthood.
"The treatment of disease, though based in some measure upon a
judicious use of the commoner simple drugs of the country, is, as was
inevitable amongst so superstitious a people, saturated with
absurdity" (Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries_).
The three great monasteries in the vicinity of Lhasa, all claiming to
be foundations of Tsongkhapa (1356-1418), the medieval reformer and
organizer of the modern orthodox Lama Church, "the yellow caps," are
the following:--
1. _Debung_ (written '_Bras spungs_) is 6 m. west of Lhasa at the foot
of the hills which flank the plain on the north. It is one of the
largest monasteries in the world, having some 8000 monks. In the
middle of the convent buildings rises a kind of pavilion, brilliant
with colour and gilding, which is occupied by the Dalai Lama when he
visits Debung once a year and expounds to the inmates. The place is
frequented by the Mongol students who come to Lhasa to graduate, and
is known in the country as the Mongol convent; it has also been
notorious as a centre of political intrigue. Near it is the seat of
the chief magician of Tibet, the Nachung Chos-kyong, a building
picturesque in itself and in situation.
2. _Sera_ is 3 m. north of the city on the acclivity of the hills and
close to the road by which pilgrims enter from Mongolia. From a
distance the crowd of buildings and temples, rising in amphitheatre
against a background of rocky mountains, forms a pleasing picture. In
the recesses of the hill, high above the convent, are scattered cells
of lamas adopting the solitary life. The chief temple of Sera, a
highly ornate building, has a special reputation as the resting-place
of a famous _Dorje_, i.e. the _Vajra_ or Thunderbolt of Jupiter, the
symbol of the strong and indestructible, which the priest grasps and
manipulates in various ways during prayer. The emblem is a bronze
instrument, shaped much like a dumbbell with pointed ends, and it is
carried solemnly in procession to the Jokhang during the New Year's
festival.
The hill adjoining Sera is believed to be rich in silver ore, but it
is not allowed to be worked. On the summit is a spring and a holy
place of the Lhasa Mahommedans, who resort thither. Near the monastery
there is said to be gold, which is worked by the monks. "Should they
... discover a nugget of large size, it is immediately replaced in the
earth, under the impression that the large nuggets ... germinate in
time, producing the small lumps which they are privileged to search
for" (Nain Singh).
3. _Galdan._--This great convent is some 25 m. east of Lhasa, on the
other side of the Kyichu. It is the oldest monastery of the "Yellow"
sect, having been founded by Tsongkhapa and having had him for its
first superior. Here his body is said to be preserved with miraculous
circumstances; here is his tomb, of marble and malachite, with a great
shrine said to be of gold, and here are other relics of him, such as
the impression of his hands and feet.
_Samyé_ is another famous convent intimately connected with Lhasa,
being said to be used as a treasury by the government, but it lies
some 36 m. south-east on the left bank of the great Tsangpo. It was
founded in 770, and is the oldest extant monastery in Tibet. It is
surrounded by a very high circular stone wall, 1½ m. in circumference,
with gates facing the four points of the compass. On this wall Nain
Singh, who was here on his journey in 1874, counted 1030 votive piles
of brick. One very large temple occupies the centre, and round it are
four smaller but still large temples. Many of the idols are said to be
of pure gold, and the wealth is very great. The interiors of the
temples are covered with beautiful writing in enormous characters,
which the vulgar believe to be the writing of Sakya himself.
_Population and Trade._--The total population of Lhasa, including the
lamas in the city and vicinity, is probably about 30,000; a census in
1854 made the figure 42,000, but it is known to have greatly decreased
since. There are only some 1500 resident Tibetan laymen and about 5500
Tibetan women. The permanent population embraces, besides Tibetans,
settled families of Chinese (about 2000 persons), as well as people from
Nepal, from Ladak, and a few from Bhotan and Mongolia. The Ladakis and
some of the other foreigners are Mahommedans, and much of the trade is
in their hands. Desideri (1716) speaks also of Armenians and even
"Muscovites." The Chinese have a crowded burial-ground at Lhasa, tended
carefully after their manner. The Nepalese (about 800) supply the
mechanics and metal-workers. There are among them excellent gold- and
silversmiths; and they make the elaborate gilded canopies crowning the
temples. The chief industries are the weaving of a great variety of
stuffs from the fine Tibetan wool; the making of earthenware and of the
wooden porringers (varying immensely in elaboration and price) of which
every Tibetan carries one about with him; also the making of certain
fragrant sticks of incense much valued in China and elsewhere.
As Lhasa is not only the nucleus of a cluster of vast monastic
establishments, which attract students and aspirants to the religious
life from all parts of Tibet and Mongolia, but is also a great place of
pilgrimage, the streets and public places swarm with visitors from every
part of the Himalayan plateau,[2] and from all the steppes of Asia
between Manchuria and the Balkhash Lake. Naturally a great traffic
arises quite apart from the pilgrimage. The city thus swarms with
crowds attracted by devotion and the love of gain, and presents a great
diversity of language, costume and physiognomy; though, in regard to the
last point, varieties of the broad face and narrow eye greatly
predominate. Much of the retail trade of the place is in the hands of
the women. The curious practice of the women in plastering their faces
with a dark-coloured pigment is less common in Lhasa than in the
provinces.
During December especially traders arrive from western China by way of
Tachienlu bringing every variety of silk-stuffs, carpets, china-ware and
tea; from Siningfu come silk, gold lace, Russian goods, carpets of a
superior kind, semi-precious stones, horse furniture, horses and a very
large breed of fat-tailed sheep; from eastern Tibet, musk in large
quantities, which eventually finds its way to Europe through Nepal; from
Bhotan and Sikkim, rice; from Sikkim also tobacco; besides a variety of
Indian and European goods from Nepal and Darjeeling, and _charas_
(resinous exudation of hemp) and saffron from Ladakh and Kashmir. The
merchants leave Lhasa in March, before the setting in of the rains
renders the rivers impassable.
The tea importation from China is considerable, for tea is an absolute
necessary to the Tibetan. The tea is of various qualities, from the
coarsest, used only for "buttered" tea (a sort of broth), to the fine
quality drunk by the wealthy. This is pressed into bricks or cakes
weighing about 5½ lb., and often passes as currency. The quantity that
pays duty at Tachienlu is about 10,000,000 lb., besides some amount
smuggled. No doubt a large part of this comes to Lhasa.
_Lhasa Festivities._--The greatest of these is at the new year. This
lasts fifteen days, and is a kind of lamaic carnival, in which masks
and mummings, wherein the Tibetans take especial delight, play a great
part. The celebration commences at midnight, with shouts and clangour
of bells, gongs, chank-shells, drums and all the noisy repertory of
Tibetan music; whilst friends exchange early visits and administer
coarse sweetmeats and buttered tea. On the second day the Dalai Lama
gives a grand banquet, at which the Chinese and native authorities are
present, whilst in the public spaces and in front of the great
convents all sorts of shows and jugglers' performances go on. Next day
a regular Tibetan exhibition takes place. A long cable, twisted of
leather thongs, is stretched from a high point in the battlements of
Potala slanting down to the plain, where it is strongly moored. Two
men slide from top to bottom of this huge hypothenuse, sometimes lying
on the chest (which is protected by a breast-plate of strong leather),
spreading their arms as if to swim, and descending with the rapidity
of an arrow-flight. Occasionally fatal accidents occur in this
performance, which is called "the dance of the gods"; but the
survivors are rewarded by the court, and the Grand Lama himself is
always a witness of it. This practice occurs more or less over the
Himalayan plateau, and is known in the neighbourhood of the Ganges as
_Barat_. It is employed as a kind of expiatory rite in cases of
pestilence and the like. Exactly the same performance is described as
having been exhibited in St Paul's Churchyard before King Edward VI.,
and again before Philip of Spain, as well as, about 1750, at Hertford
and other places in England (see Strutt's _Sports_, &c., 2nd ed., p.
198).
The most remarkable celebration of the new year's festivities is the
great jubilee of the _Monlam_ (_s Mon-lam_, "prayer"), instituted by
Tsongkhapa himself in 1408. Lamas from all parts of Tibet, but chiefly
from the great convents in the neighbourhood, flock to Lhasa, and
every road leading thither is thronged with troops of monks on foot or
horseback, on yaks or donkeys, carrying with them their breviaries and
their cooking-pots. Those who cannot find lodging bivouac in the
streets and squares, or pitch their little black tents in the plain.
The festival lasts six days, during which there reigns a kind of
saturnalia. Unspeakable confusion and disorder reign, while gangs of
lamas parade the streets, shouting, singing and coming to blows. The
object of this gathering is, however, supposed to be devotional. Vast
processions take place, with mystic offerings and lama-music, to the
Jokhang and Moru convents; the Grand Lama himself assists at the
festival, and from an elevated throne beside the Jokhang receives the
offerings of the multitude and bestows his benediction.
On the 15th of the first month multitudes of torches are kept ablaze,
which lighten up the city to a great distance, whilst the interior of
the Jokhang is illuminated throughout the night by innumerable
lanterns shedding light on coloured figures in bas-relief, framed in
arabesques of animals, birds and flowers, and representing the history
of Buddha and other subjects, all modelled in butter. The figures are
executed on a large scale, and, as described by Huc, who witnessed the
festival at Kunbum on the frontier of China, with extraordinary truth
and skill. These singular works of art occupy some months in
preparation, and on the morrow are thrown away. On other days
horse-races take place from Sera to Potala, and foot-races from Potala
to the city. On the 27th of the month the holy _Dorje_ is carried in
solemn procession from Sera to the Jokhang, and to the presence of the
lama at Potala.
Of other great annual feasts, one, in the fourth month, is assigned to
the conception of Sakya, but appears to connect itself with the old
nature-feast of the entering of spring, and to be more or less
identical with the _Huli_ of India. A second, the consecration of the
waters, in September-October, appears, on the confines of India, to be
associated with the Dasehra.
On the 30th day of the second month there takes place a strange
ceremony, akin to that of the scapegoat (which is not unknown in
India). It is called the driving out of the demon. A man is hired to
perform the part of demon (or victim rather), a part which sometimes
ends fatally. He is fantastically dressed, his face mottled with white
and black, and is then brought forth from the Jokhang to engage in
quasi-theological controversy with one who represents the Grand Lama.
This ends in their throwing dice against each other (as it were for
the weal or woe of Lhasa). If the demon were to win the omen would be
appalling; so this is effectually barred by false dice. The victim is
then marched outside the city, followed by the troops and by the whole
populace, hooting, shouting and firing volleys after him. Once he is
driven off, the people return, and he is carried off to the Samyé
convent. Should he die shortly after, this is auspicious; if not, he
is kept in ward at Samyé for a twelvemonth.
Nain Singh, whose habitual accuracy is attested by many facts,
mentions a strange practice of comparatively recent origin, according
to which the civil power in the city is put up to auction for the
first twenty-three days of the new year. The purchaser, who must be a
member of the Debung monastery, and is termed the _Jalno_, is a kind
of lord of misrule, who exercises arbitrary authority during that time
for his own benefit, levying taxes and capricious fines upon the
citizens.
_History._--The seat of the princes whose family raised Tibet to a
position among the powers of Asia was originally on the Yarlung river,
in the extreme east of the region now occupied by Tibetan tribes. It was
transplanted to Lhasa in the 7th century by the king Srong-tsan-gampo,
conqueror, civilizer and proselytizer, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet,
the introducer of the Indian alphabet. On the three-peaked crag now
occupied by the palace-monastery of the Grand Lama this king is said to
have established his fortress, while he founded in the plain below
temples to receive the sacred images, brought respectively from Nepal
and from China by the brides to whom his own conversion is attributed.
Tibet endured as a conquering power some two centuries, and the more
famous among the descendants of the founder added to the city.
This-rong-de-tsan (who reigned 740-786) is said to have erected a great
temple-palace of which the basement followed the Tibetan style, the
middle storey the Chinese, and the upper storey the Indian--a
combination which would aptly symbolize the elements that have moulded
the culture of Lhasa. His son, the last of the great orthodox kings, in
the next century, is said to have summoned artists from Nepal and India,
and among many splendid foundations to have erected a sanctuary (at
Samyé) of vast height, which had nine storeys, the three lower of stone,
the three middle of brick, the three uppermost of timber. With this king
the glory of Tibet and of ancient Lhasa reached its zenith, and in 822,
a monument recording his treaty on equal terms with the Great T'ang
emperor of China was erected in the city. There followed dark days for
Lhasa and the Buddhist church in the accession of this king's brother
Langdharma, who has been called the Julian of the lamas. This king
rejected the doctrine, persecuted and scattered its ministers, and threw
down its temples, convents and images. It was more than a century before
Buddhism recovered its hold and its convents were rehabilitated over
Tibet. The country was then split into an infinity of petty states, many
of them ruled from the convents by warlike ecclesiastics; but, though
the old monarchy never recovered, Lhasa seems to have maintained some
supremacy, and probably never lost its claim to be the chief city of
that congeries of principalities, with a common faith and a common
language, which was called Tibet.
The Arab geographers of the 10th century speak of Tibet, but without
real knowledge, and none speaks of any city that we can identify with
Lhasa. The first passage in any Western author in which such
identification can be probably traced occurs in the narrative of Friar
Odoric of Pordenone (c. 1330). This remarkable traveller's route from
Europe to India, and thence by sea to China, can be traced
satisfactorily, but of his journey homeward through Asia the indications
are very fragmentary. He speaks, however, on this return journey of the
realm of Tibet, which lay on the confines of India proper: "The folk of
that country dwell in tents made of black felt. But the chief and royal
city is all built with walls of black and white, and all its streets are
very well paved. In this city no one shall dare to shed the blood of
any, whether man or beast, for the reverence they bear a certain idol
that is there worshipped. In that city dwelleth the _Abassi_, i.e. in
their tongue the pope, who is the head of all the idolaters, and has the
disposal of all their benefices such as they are after their manner."
We know that Kublai Khan had constituted a young prince of the Lama
Church, Mati Dhwaja, as head of that body, and tributary ruler of Tibet,
but besides this all is obscure for a century. This passage of Odoric
shows that such authority continued under Kublai's descendants, and that
some foreshadow of the position since occupied by the Dalai Lama already
existed. But it was not till a century after Odoric that the strange
heredity of the dynasty of the Dalai Lamas of Lhasa actually began. In
the first two centuries of its existence the residence of these pontiffs
was rather at Debung or Sera than at Lhasa itself, though the latter was
the centre of devout resort. A great event for Lhasa was the conversion,
or reconversion, of the Mongols to Lamaism (c. 1577), which made the
city the focus of sanctity and pilgrimage to so vast a tract of Asia. It
was in the middle of the 17th century that Lhasa became the residence of
the Dalai Lama. A native prince, known as the Tsangpo, with his seat at
Shigatse, had made himself master of southern Tibet, and threatened to
absorb the whole. The fifth Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobzang, called in the
aid of a Kalmuck prince, Gushi Khan, from the neighbourhood of the
Koko-nor, who defeated and slew the Tsangpo and made over full dominion
in Tibet to the lama (1641). The latter now first established his court
and built his palace on the rock-site of the fortress of the ancient
monarchy, which apparently had fallen into ruin, and to this he gave the
name of Potala.
The founder of Potala died in 1681. He had appointed as "regent" or
civil administrator (_Deisri_, or _Deba_) one supposed to be his own
natural son. This remarkable personage, Sangye Gyamtso, of great
ambition and accomplishment, still renowned in Tibet as the author of
some of the most valued works of the native literature, concealed the
death of his master, asserting that the latter had retired, in mystic
meditation or trance, to the upper chambers of the palace. The
government continued to be carried on in the lama's name by the regent,
who leagued with Galdan Khan of Dzungaria against the Chinese (Manchu)
power. It was not till the great emperor Kang-hi was marching on Tibet
that the death of the lama, sixteen years before, was admitted. A solemn
funeral was then performed, at which 108,000 lamas assisted, and a new
incarnation was set up in the person of a youth of fifteen, Tsangs-yang
Gyamtso. This young man was the scandal of the Lamaist Church in every
kind of evil living and debauchery, so that he was deposed and
assassinated in 1701. But it was under him and the regent Sangye Gyamtso
that the Potala palace attained its present scale of grandeur, and that
most of the other great buildings of Lhasa were extended and
embellished.
For further history and bibliography, see TIBET. Consult also LAMAISM.
(H. Y.; L. A. W.)